Postmark 1911 - "From the history of Wrentham Webpage "The end of the century brought the railroad to Wrentham Center, which transformed life here forever. At last, Wrentham citizens could board a passenger train and commute to work in the city, and prominent people began moving in, as well as city residents riding out and vacationing at our resort lakes, many of whom would buy lake lots and build camps. A commuting newspaper reporter and Wrentham resident, Joseph Edgar Chamberlain, brought to Town Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan in 1896, who became internationally famous as a deaf and blind author and her teacher."
FROM the TOWN of NORFOLK WEBSITE
On May 1, 1870, the Mansfield & Framingham Railroad Company opened a north-south RR line through Walpole Center, crossing the old Norfolk county line at grade. The M&F became the Boston, Clinton & Fitchburg RR when opened and was absorbed in turn by the Old Colony Railroad in 1879, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford RR in 1898. On December 1, 1890, the Old Colony Railroad opened a single-track rail line from Walpole Junction - later to be called Cedar - to North Attleboro via Wrentham and Plainville. This - the Wrentham Branch - connected with the 4.6 mile Attleboro Branch RR opened in 1871, between North Attleboro and Attleboro, where a connection was then made with the Boston & Providence RR main line. On February 15, 1892, the Old Colony extended its Wrentham Branch further easterly by building a 5.7 mile line from Cedar through East Walpole to Norwood Central, connecting at that point with the New York & New England RR - the later Midland Division of the NYNH&H RR. On June 27, 1903, the New Haven opened another extension of the Wrentham Branch, building a 4.6 mile line from North Attleboro to Adamsdale Junction. Now, a through train could run from South Station in Boston to Providence, via Norwood, East Walpole, Wrentham, North Attleboro and Pawtucket. Passenger service ended on the Wrentham Branch in 1938 but freight and gravel trains continued to ran on the line somewhat haphazardly for a while thereafter. In 1965 the rails were taken up from a point about one mile north of Valley Falls, RI to a gravel pit in Plainville, MA. The entire Wrentham Branch was later abandoned in the mid-1980s. Passenger service on the Wrentham Branch ended in 1938 in the famous New Haven RR "88 Stations case" - through 1937, as part of the fall out of the Great Depression, the railroad continued to fall on hard times - the parent company of the Old Colony Railroad, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, announced that due to company deficits the railroad would be abandoning 88 stations in eastern Massachusetts, including selected stations on the Blackstone line - all Old Colony passenger service was discontinued in June, 1959.